A smart card is typically a plastic card embedded with a computer chip that stores and transacts data between users. This data may be associated with secret information and is stored and processed within the card's chip, generally a low performance 8-bit microprocessor with a small amount of memory. The card data is transacted via a reader that may be part of a computing system. Smart card systems are in use today in many industries, including healthcare, banking, entertainment and transportation.
On a computer platform today, no capabilities exist for secure, isolated storage and execution, such as that provided by a smart card, in both the pre-boot and the runtime environments.